Area bridge still might open this year

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By Kay Luna | Wednesday, November 1, 2006 1:11 AM CST | () comments

Larry Fisher/QUAD-CITY TIMES This view looking south from John Deere Road in Moline shows construction of the approaches to the new West Rock River Bridge.

Temperatures need to be 40 degrees or higher for workers to keep pouring concrete at the new West Rock River Bridge — and the weather is turning colder by the week.

Still, Greg Hass, co-owner of Valley Construction in Rock Island, said he hopes to see the bulk of the project’s remaining roadway work finished by mid-December, rather than spring, as some state transportation officials expect. Valley is the main contractor for the project.

Weather delays or not, one thing is certain: The job will not be finished by today’s contract deadline.

“We’re going to keep pushing ahead,” Hass said. “Hopefully parts of it will be open to use soon.”

After the Nov. 1 date, the contract calls for a penalty of $11,000 against the company for every day the job is not finished.

John Wegmeyer, project implementation engineer for the Illinois Department of Transportation, said the company is negotiating with the state in regards to when the penalty will kick in. Valley is seeking an extension, he said.

“There have been a lot of delay issues, but I think we’ll be fine there,” Hass said. “There have been a lot of things out of our control that have come up, utility issues and other things. All of them are being negotiated.”

Illinois transportation officials have not decided when traffic should be allowed on the span, officially named the Veterans Memorial Bridge at Carr’s Crossing, which will connect Milan and Rock Island.

The span has been completed for a while, Wegmeyer said.

State officials hope to know more in the coming weeks, depending on how fast the weather turns bad.

“The contractor is still optimistic he’ll have it open mid-December,” Wegmeyer said. “I’m not so sure. I’m not as optimistic as he is.”

With summer-like temperatures Monday, workers were able to get “quite a bit done,” but there still is more concrete roadway work to be completed — especially at the point where traffic ties into John Deere Road at Moline, Hass said.

Those intersections need to be built in phases to allow for traffic movement during the construction process, so that makes the work more complicated, he added.

Kay Luna can be contacted at (563) 383-2323 or kluna@qctimes.com.